Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Pretty in Pink

                    (As always, recipe to follow!)

Sunday was a glorious day. First of all, it was Verve Sketch Challenge time and this week, not only was the sketch amazing, we were given a picture for color inspiration! I love that! After focusing my efforts on CAS cards, I had been training myself to go minimalist and am moving along nicely. But when the Verve Challenge showed up, I went nuts! Think about it, fellow crafters! All the glitter, sequins and sparkle you can handle and, for the record, I can handle a lot. Case in point; my husband came to me quite unhappy and asked me to come upstairs with him. He showed me what seemed to be a rather significant layer of glitter on a table. My first thought was that my kids had gotten into my craft stash and that I would take the guilty one and immediately put him up for adoption.

But my husband then pulled a vent filter out of an air duct and the glitter was everywhere. Seems my glitter was affecting our air quality. I tried to look concerned but failed miserably. My husband pointed to our 3 boys and asked me how it would look if they showed up to school with glitter on their clothes and how would I feel about the subsequent teasing they would be subject to.

I said it would make them stronger.

Apparently, that wasn't the right answer.

So, under the 'Conners Glitter Conservation Act', I'm not allowed to use glitter unless absolutely necessary. I submit my request, in triplicate, and wait for an approval. As I wait, I give much thought to my perfect man. A man who would love EVERYTHING about me. He wouldn't think twice about glitter in orifices I can't mention here, nor would he care that all my clothes had Stickles residue. He would welcome the small lace cuts on my hands, ink smudges on my fingers and face and love me for me.



I DID find the perfect man!! In fact, I included a video of Ducky, from Pretty in Pink. But, according to the company who owns blogger, I can't have the videos. So, they're gone. Sorry!!






Recipe: I began with dry embossing some
designer paper. Most all the paper here is from MME Indie Chic. I cut two long strips and edged them with Verve Flourished Trim Die. I used the Verve Banner Bundle for the banner edge. The sentiment is from Verve's Surely Goodness stamp set.The scroll is Verve's Scroll Die. The embellishments are from Spare Parts and I get mine from Hobby Lobby.
                 

Saturday, April 20, 2013

The Things We Do For CAS....I Mean, LOVE

CAS challenge for this week is to create a birthday card in the CAS (clean and simple) way. The ruling Queen of CAS-ual Friday, Michele, is having a birthday so here we go! My CAS entry:

                                                **Materials list at the bottom of post**


 This post is guaranteed to warrant a call from my big sister, Sherry.  But, as will all addicts, I'll promise to never do it again and reassure her that stamping really is NOT interfering with my life.

In short, I'm going to lie like a rug.

Which got me thinking about addict meetings for crafters. We'd all sit around, drinking diet coke, then someone would stand and say "Hi...my name is Jane and it's been three weeks since I embossed anything."

Or, "Hi, my name is Jean and I had a setback yesterday...my kids found my Tim Holtz stash. They were horrified by the size of my collection and didn't believe me when I said it wasn't THAT much, considering there's not a pot that the man doesn't have a finger in. It ended up in an argument and my husband found me fetal in the corner and screaming, "You'll never take my Copics! I'll DIE before that happens!"

We'd all nod gravely and talk about how Tim Holtz IS taking over the world and how we wish he'd do a vintage stamp collection with HAPPY messages that we could use instead of the vague and somewhat...oops. Sorry.

We'd all be looking each other over, searching for tell-tale signs of glitter in the hair, ink on fingers or the person who shows signs of favoring one arm over another...a sure sign of tendinitis brought on by too much Big Shot die cutting.
 
 Great...now I have the giggles.  Believe it or not, there's a reason I'm going this route. To be continued later in this post....promise.

First, I want to show you what it looks like when I create. Whether it's a CAS or any other card is irrelevant...this is my craft room and the aftermath...




I had my kid take one of those panoramic pics on my phone. I had to get him involved because I have no idea how to do this.

This is even more a travesty because, you have to believe me here, I'm organized. I don't like messes. I can barely work in them and yet, I somehow do. I clean up between each project. No wonder I haven't seen my kids in 6 months.

Now, on to my egregious behavior in making my CAS card today and why the whole addiction scenario was playing in my head.

Aside: SEE? I actually DO have a method to my madness....as far as you know.  hee hee

Here's the card my sister sent to me on my birthday last week:





Now, look back at my card and see if you notice anything.


I ACTUALLY RIPPED THE BUTTERFLY OFF THE BIRTHDAY CARD MY SISTER HANDMADE FOR ME TO CREATE MY ENTRY THIS WEEK!!!!!!

If this isn't addiction, my friends, I don't know what is.

But you have to admit that it really did MAKE the card, right????





***Materials List: I used the Sizzix daisy diecut and cut one in Wildberry Brazzil cardstock. Then, I cut six more of each piece in white to adhere underneath and give it depth. Verve scroll diecut and sentiment and the butterfly...well, the butterfly is the purpose of this entire post. But that's later. A SU! brad and two butterfly diecuts from an SU! punch on SU! designer paper finshes it off. Sentiment stamped in SU! Pacific Point.***



Thursday, April 18, 2013

My FIRST CAS-ual Affair

It sounded remedial.

"Clean and Simple Cardmaking".

I dismissed the technique (or lack, thereof, I thought) because anyone could do it! I mean, it was merely a minimalist approach to cardmaking! Where was the bling? The diecuts? The color?

I WANTED MY GLITTER, &%$#&^!!!

So, I ignored it. Until my first cardmaking class. You can guess what it was called, right?

The first card consisted of two ink colors and two stamps and one piece of colored mat. Oh, and two rhinestones.

All I had to do was stamp an image three times in one color ink. I couldn't even get that far before chucking the entire thing. Clean and Simple, I discovered, became Convoluted and Stressful.

You see, when messing around with Mixed Media or just intermixing stamps, diecuts and embossing powder, you have the ability to pile on crap until it looks right...or messy enough that most people will think you're a wunderkind and consider you fabulous.

Clean and simple leaves you nowhere to hide. I kind of like that. I kind of hate it, too. I'm also a little scared of it.

Good Lord...can I make a metaphor out of anything, or what?

Here goes...Clean and Simple 1.

http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/2013/04/cfc98.html





And your media moment for today? Let's go with the first thing that came to mind when I said the words Clean and Simple...






Friday, April 12, 2013

Back to School Time!!!

The conversation went something like this:

Me: I don't understand your reticence! This is important to me! This could lead to something great!!

My Husband: You want to spend money to go to greeting-card-making school! It's not reticence you're hearing, it's sheer disbelief!

Me: Why can't I ever have something just for me??? JUST. FOR. ME!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Him: (now retreating a step) I didn't say you couldn't! I just said I thought it was kind of...um...(shifting his eyes from me to the front door and quickly calculating his chances)...um...just silly because, you see, I think you're already quite good and the school well, hah hah, you could practically teach a class!

Me: (stepping away from the knife block I pretended to NOT notice on the counter in vicinity of my balled up fist) That's the sweetest thing you've said to me!!

Him: (voice still a bit shaky) Can I go watch golf now?

Me:  (sweetly) As long as you don't look at the paypal account until next week.

And just like that, I'm back in school!

Okay, so it's an online thing I can do on my own time and there are no grades and no actual teacher interaction but I had to do something. I'm not interested, really, in the class from an actual artistic standpoint; all I know is that I'm sitting on several hundred dollars worth of cardmaking crap that I HAD to learn to use!




To continue my somewhat inspirational journey, here's "Hope and Roses"





Remember, anything IS possible. Just follow the advice I was given many decades ago and that I have always followed: "Leap and the net will appear".

If you still have doubts and those doubts are exacerbated by a significant other, just take a deep breath and begin explaining your position in a calm and mature fashion. 

And it wouldn't hurt to do just that while standing near your own knife block.


Thursday, April 11, 2013

BLUE

When I was a little girl, one of my favorite things to do was to ride with my father in his old El Camino and listen to him sing. He had his trusty Jack Daniels and 'Co-Ccola' tucked between his knees and an 8-track of whatever suited his particular mood.

Sidebar: Yes, he drank while he drove. But during the 1970's in McLeansville, NC., it wasn't an issue. In fact, one of the most popular places to eat was Knuckles Drive-In, off I-29 and McKnight Mill Rd. You could order a burger and beer while sitting right next to a Greensboro Police Officer, who was enjoying the same thing on his dinner break. You might even find Jesse Jackson working as a car-hop as he attended A&T State. The consensus remains that Jesse spent more time flirting with the ladies than he did actual 'hopping', but that's another story for another day.

Back to the El Camino, where Dad and I had our windows rolled down and the sun was beginning to set. Dad would reach into the glove box and pop an 8-track in and begin to sing. One of my very favorite songs, then as it is today, is from Bobby Vinton. "Blue on Blue". It was running around in my head today for no particular reason.





Though this card is FAR from anything I consider worth posting, it's the Father's Day card I tried putting together this weekend. While I don't care for it, I find I have to go through several incarnations of an idea before it works out. So, here you go, Daddy! I love you!



Wednesday, April 10, 2013

YEEEEEEEE-HAWWWWWW!

I grew up hearing the Rebel Yell all my life. I can even whip up a sample if you like, but you'll hate yourself afterwards.

Here's what the ORIGINAL Rebel Yell sounded like. A small scrap of newsreel reveals Civil War Vets giving the Rebel Yell...the same sound that Yankee soldiers said made their 'hair stand on end' when they heard it.

(Video Removed because Google spake and sayeth "Thou Shalt Not Do Things Unless It Happens To Be Our Idea. Nor Shall Ye Do Anything Without Our Okay. So What If People Putteth Videos To YouTube So That The Public Can See For Free? That Doesn't Meaneth You May Use Them On Your Blog. Unless We Come Up With A Way To Make Money On It. Then You Mayeth.
And Google Spake And It Was Good.)


 While you ruminate on this, enjoy this VERY vintage card. I made it in 20 min after spending hours on something else I had to throw away. Now that I think about it, I probably should've let this one join its' brother in the trash. Gotta start somewhere!



We'll talk tomorrow..I promise!

YOLO!

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

What a LAME move!

Madame Butterfly



I should really be ashamed of myself...no....really.  You see, I started stamping months ago. I think this card is my best to date, so I used this to (hopefully) get your attention. Just wait until I get to the failures. They're laughable.

I began this blog for two reasons: 1-to showcase my work for the 2-3 people who might check in from time to time and 2-I'm hoping for a new career when they fire me from the old one.

And they will...it's inevitable! But with this blog, I can really go places! I have no idea where and whether making my mediocre cards will get me there but it doesn't matter-it beats sitting around reading "Better Homes and Gardens" and sobbing quietly over my failed attempts at gardening and choosing the wrong paint colors.

Love to my peeps!
C